The following is what we have piloted this past academic session and is a rough outline of what we are doing with our S1 through the ‘Craigmount Challenge’.

After identification we had 18 students who staff thought would benefit from further challenges in their education. Staff had been asked for further/extended challenges for these students. I gathered these in and put in folders in a small room in the SfL (support for learning) base which we had decided to use.

A certificate, designed and voted online through Studywiz, to be given out after they had successfully completed the set challenges. I had arranged an after school session to teach students how to access studywiz as some of our challenges were to be through this medium.

I am available tutor group time at the beginning of the day to collect or hand in the completed challenges. Or to answer any questions, problems which they may have.

One of our aims was to allow time and space for these students to come together and socialise. At each certificate we had a small treat. Red we had half an hour at the end of the day with juice and biscuits. Amber we arranged a lunch session and chatted over pizza and salad.

I have given out questionnaires both before and at the end of this session to evaluate how they felt and how we could improve on this for our next intake. We did not have time to complete the record sheet as we started later in the year and they all want to complete this in their second year at Craigmount.

We have felt as a team that this has so far been a successful pilot. The students have enjoyed doing this and it has given them a boost in their educational progress. I have included the record card and an example of the red certificate which was voted by the students as the one which they most wanted to receive.

S2 City MattersWe have completed 2 years of our City Matters project. This involves:

students choosing a topic which they would like to learn more about and to do with some aspect of our city

Students have 2 days in which to gather together material for a presentation which they will put on for parents and selected guests i.e. primary teachers.

this will involve members of staff going out with the group to visit the places of interest, for example this year I went out with a group on one of the ghost tours and watched them film and perform there own ghost story in Grey Friars church yard